Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Though I can't say for certain, I think that it was the great Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini who ushered-in the era of matching kit and bikes for grand tour classification leaders. But even if it wasn't Cipo's doing, the practice certainly seems like something you'd ascribe to the Tuscan Playboy, no?

Team Quick Step's Sylvain Chavanel is no Mario Cipollini when it comes to swagger or braggadocio (not that that's necessarily a bad thing), but both he and his French teammate Jérôme Pineau will be sporting custom-painted Eddy Merckx bicycles when Tour de France stage 3 begins today - and Chavanel's bike will have a unique twist - a Yellow AND Green paint scheme to reflect his position as leader of both the overall classification and the points competition!

Our contact at the factory in Belgium was kind enough to forward the following email, which went out to Merckx's commercial partners and contains a link to an album's worth of interesting photos that document the process of preparing the frames for the start tomorrow:

"We at Eddy Merckx Cycles are very proud of Sylvain Chavanel’s victory in today’s stage of the Tour de France. To congratulate Chavanel with his yellow and green jersey, he will ride a customized yellow-green emx-5 bike tomorrow. What a great way to enter his home country. Today Sylvain Chavanel showed us he’s a real cannibal.

The making of a yellow and green EMX-5 was not a simple task in such a short time frame. We made a webalbum where you can check the making off pictures."

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